It’s the end of an olympic era. And, no, I don’t mean the recent loss of dominance by the Russianand former Soviet countries at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. I mean the official end of puffy sleeves in men’s figure skating!

I’ve always said that my favorite two sports were baseball (GO YANKS!) and figure skating. While baseball gives me the likes of Jeter, A-Rod, and Hip, Hip, Jorge!, figure skating gives me outlandish outfits. In the 80s, puffy was all the rage, but on the ice puffy lasted way too long after the 80s ended. Now a days, the only men in the rink with puffed shoulders, thankfully, are the hockey players.

Watching the men’s figure skating performances at Vancouver, I was struck by the few number of men who opted for the pant/shirt option over the unitard. There were multiple vests, including one sported by American champion Jeremy Abbott after his disappointing performance. Granted, it was a purple vest. Russian Plushenko’s vest doesn’t count, because it’s really a unitard. My favorite men’s outfit by far was a young athlete from the Czech Republic (sorry, I can’t find a picture online to confirm) who sported a pink, plaid, sparkly, sweater vest over a white collared shirt! Preppy yet snazzy. A new era indeed.